Other Ways
by Ithilwen K-Bane
Summary: Naraku makes an unusual attempt to neutralize his enemies. Inuyasha and Kagome are trapped in a world they never meant, among allies they cannot recognize. Rated D for Dark.
1. Reflected

STOP!  DON'T SUE!!  I don't own Inuyasha or any of its characters.  Long live Rumiko Takahashi!

Thank you for reading chapter one...  (-Diana R. Flynn) (drf24@columbia.edu)

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                _A dream.  A terrible dream…_

                He could still feel the pinpricks of sweat between his shoulder blades as his awareness seeped back.

                There had been news of a giant snake that terrorized a village to the north.  They'd followed the rumor to another ruined town, and a demon with a round shard gleaming like a lurid eye above its fangs.  They'd fought.  They'd found it.

                Only they hadn't been first.

                _"Foolish Inuyasha.  Why defeat the snake demon when you so kindly do it for me?" he shuddered at Naraku's voice in his brain.  _Just a dream._ He flexed his forearm against the ground, shifting his weight to sit up._

                The puppet had smiled its bare, corner-twisting smile, eyes twitching lazily behind the baboon to set on the young priestess.  Inuyasha had turned his head long enough to see Kagome's knuckles go white against her bow.  _Something's coming.  The monk muttered a warning._

                A growl had built in his throat as Naraku spoke again, _"And why defeat you when there are other ways?"_

                Not another sound.  Not another flickered grin.  Only motion.  The demon's arm had sprung forward, throwing something green and blazing through the air.  Kagome had been ready, but she would never be fast enough.  He remembered his hands going flat against her shoulders.  He'd meant to knock her down, out of the way…

                He remembered the feel of her shirt against his palms, of the seething magic against his spine as the eerie green light had seared right through his fire-rat armor and sealed itself around them both.

                Her eyes had glazed even has he'd felt her hand jump to his face.  She choked something that might have been his name and then—

                He was waking up; it didn't matter.  Like all his childhood nightmares, the fear and the faces would all be gone before the sun was high.  The real world held enough of those things.

                Inuyasha braced his sore forearms against the floor and raised his head, inhaling deeply.

                And blinked.

                "The hell?!"

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                Kagome yawned.  The alarm hadn't gone off, but with her luck, it'd be blazing away at any minute for her to go to school.  She smiled without opening her eyes.  As much as she'd scolded Inuyasha for destroying her clock that one time, the thought of his iron claws ripping through the snooze alarm had been very satisfying.  Reluctantly, she stretched her neck against the blankets and pushed herself upright.  She still had to shower, get breakfast, make sure her books were all in order and—

                "The hell?!"

                Kagome eeped and came face to face with a pair of unfamiliar gold eyes.  Three things came crashing home all at once:  This wasn't her room, this wasn't her bed, and there was a strange boy leaning over it.

                She winced as strong fingers clamped painfully on her upper arm. "Who are you and how the hell did I get here?" he demanded in a growl.  Kagome's mouth fell open as she tried to answer.  The boy's brow furrowed behind his white bangs as he brought his other hand in front of his face, staring hard at the nails. "And what the fuck did you do to me?" he demanded.

                "I don't—  I…" her voice faltered.  The way he was looking at his hand was very familiar, like he expected to see something else there.  Something clicked in Kagome's mind as she realized that it really reminded her of—

                "—Inuyasha?"

                He blinked, "Kagome?"

                "Is that you?" she asked. "You look all …different."

                "_I look different?  Bitch, _you_—" he stopped, releasing her arm. "I look different?"_

                Kagome nodded and reached up toward Inuyasha's face.  They were the same round cheeks, the same nose, but…  There was something she just couldn't put her finger on.  Even his eyes seemed different, and that was the least of it.  Short white hair slipped through her fingers as she traced the barely-pointed human ears.  And he was skinnier.  Almost new moon-skinnier.

                His skin seemed different too, a bit redder.  Inuyasha usually only got this red when something happened to make him blush, and—

                Kagome snatched her hands back, murmuring an apology.  Inuyasha's voice was low, but she was sure there was a "Keh!" in there somewhere.

                She cast her eyes around the room, the queasy feeling in her stomach growing with every breath.  She'd never seen this place before.  Heck, she'd never seen someplace _like_ this place before.

                There were no windows, and the walls were made of some thick white substance that she didn't recognize.  She realized with another sinking feeling that the mattress she'd been sleeping on didn't feel like springs or hollowfill or anything either.  Even the quilt she was hugging to her knees crinkled and shifted in ways that set her teeth on edge.  The narrow room arched up toward a low ceiling, giving Kagome the uneasy sensation of being inside a giant foam bubble, except…

                Except there were drawings and scraps of colored cloth fixed to the wall in places, and a hairbrush sitting on a shelf next to some weird colored bottles or sculptures or sleeping beetles that had to be…  well, she had no idea, but it seemed to Kagome that surely someone actually lived in this room.

                Her eyes fell on blocky silver object against the far wall that looked like it might be anything from a chest of drawers to atom bomb.  …but it would do.

                "Over there," she nodded to – she swallowed – to Inuyasha, giving his sleeve a tug.  She watched him carefully as he drew close enough to see his reflection.

                "The fuck?"

                Kagome watched as Inuyasha opened his mouth and traced a finger along a spiky white edge.  At least the fangs were still there.

                And then there were the clothes.  She was sure that Inuyasha had never worn clothes like that – it looked like a cross between blue jeans and Sango's scale armor, reaching from his ankles to his neck.

                "How do you feel?" she asked. "Do you feel like you do when you're—"

                "Human?" he shook his head. "Kinda'," he answered. "It's all messed up.  What the hell happened to us Kagome?" he asked.

                _Us.  Kagome swallowed hard and put a hand to the side of her head.  Round ears.  For some reason, that only brought her so much relief.  She scooted out of the bed and over to Inuyasha.  A girl with black hair looked back at her from the metal.  She turned her head one way and then the other.  It wasn't quite her own face, but at least everything was still attached at the same places._

                Kagome suppressed a shudder. "What's the last thing you remember?"

                His voice dropped to a growl.

                "I remember Naraku."

                "That light…"

                "He was aiming for you."

                "You saved me," she put a hand on his shoulder.

                He looked away, right hand fisting against his leg. "Yeah.  Great job I did too."

                Kagome just tightened her fingers against his arm, "We're not dead, Inuyasha," she reminded him.

                _But then... Kagome set her eyes on the worried stranger in the mirror._

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                This idea has been kicking around in my head for some time now, and the migraines finally got bad enough to let it out to play.

                Have I given you a bad review lately?  Get revenge!


	2. Fitting

I should so totally be studying right now...

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It took them less than half an hour to ransack the white chamber. Inuyasha still had no idea where the doors were or where the light was coming from - they hadn't found any lamps or torches - but Kagome had figured out how to open the metal box that they'd been using as a mirror, and was poking through neat little stacks of what was probably clothes. Inuyasha had yanked the coverings off the walls, and pulled the tops off of half the little beetle-sculptures, finding one full of round blue pebbles with no scent, and other full of a flesh-colored powder that made him sneeze.

"No newspapers," Kagome complained, "no books…"

"No way out," Inuyasha snarled, flinging another of the little bottles against the floor. Inuyasha smirked, expecting it to shatter, but it gave only an unsatisfying bounce before landing on the bed. "This isn't helping!"

"I can't even tell if these belong to a girl or a man," Kagome flipped out a length of white cloth stretching it experimentally. "I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be a shirt, though."

"You might as well put it on," he told her. "You must be cold in that thing."

Kagome's brow crinkled and she looked down at herself.

_Wait…_ Inuyasha blinked down at the girl. _She didn't notice?_

Kagome's clothes hung from her shoulders by loose white straps that reminded him a bit of the floppy dress that he'd seen her sleep in once, but that one had been a lot longer. And thicker.

And when he'd said that she must have been cold in that thing, he hadn't been guessing.

Kagome snapped her arms over her chest as if clutching at a wound. "_Pervert!_" she hissed. "I'm not dressed! Why didn't you say something?"

"What? You're blaming _me_ for this? I only-"

"_SIT!_"

The word echoed against the inside of his skull, and Inuyasha braced himself for a dive into the floor.

Stupid bitch, as if it's my fault that she doesn't keep track of her own-

Wait…

Inuyasha pried open one eye.

Kagome's mouth was gaping in unconcealed horror.

"Oh no…"

Inuyasha's eyebrows shot up. It couldn't be…

Kagome began to inch away.

Oh. _Yes!_

"_Say it again_," he demanded in a loud whisper, eyes locked on hers.

"Inuyasha…" she cringed back as a helpless smirk peeled his lips back from his fangs.

"Say it again!" Inuyasha cried with unholy glee as he clamped his hands down on her waist. She let out a high-pitched sound as he spun her around the small room. "Hell, say it all you fucking want, Kagome!"

"Put me down!"

"No!"

Inuyasha's mind raced. No more sits! No more telling him to be nice to Shippo, no more stopping him from beating Kouga to a pulp, and _no_ more running off through that well when there were jewel shards to be found. She couldn't leave him, _ever_.

"This almost makes up for my claws being gone," he exhaled, plopping her down on the mattress.

"You're scaring me, Inuyasha."

"Good!" he shot back.

"Doesn't it bother you that you lost the beads and don't know why?" she asked, pulling a shirt on over the flimsy nightgown. "I know I didn't take them off you."

"Yeah, fat chance of that," he snapped.

Kagome pushed out her chin, "Just because I can't sit you doesn't mean you don't have to listen to me!"

"I don't see why I should," he answered. "All you ever say is-"

"Wait a minute…" Kagome's eyes went just a bit bigger as she focused on something on the far wall.

"I wasn't finished talking, bitch!" he snapped as she picked something off of one of the shelves, turning it over in her hand.

"A coin?" he asked. "What could a coin tell us about anything?"

"Look," Kagome held it out to him.

It looked a lot like a coin from Kagome's time, thin, with grooves along the edge, and tiny, precise markings. Inuyasha frowned, they didn't look like they were in kanji or katakana or any of the other scrawlings in Kagome's books, so there was no way to tell-

He sucked in a breath.

He could read it. He had no idea how, but he could read the tiny ticks.

"Five-hundred and thirty-sixth year of the Tai-Oni," he recited, an uneasy feeling snaking down his spine. "Ten credits." He turned the coin over in his hand to see what was stamped on the other side.

The uneasy feeling built into a full-fledged shiver as he took in the stylized spider staring back at him.

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Neither one of them had to say it.

Naraku.

All of this had something to do with that evil bastard, and they had to get out of there to find out what.

Kagome finally got up and dug through the clothes drawer again, leaving Inuyasha to glare at the metal disk, and dug out what she hoped was a pair of pants.

The shirt fit okay. In fact, it fit more than okay, she realized as she slid her hands back through the stretchy sleeves so that she could unstrap the nightdress without getting naked. She raised her arms experimentally.

"Hm…" Unlike the little slip of a nightgown, nothing bounced or showed through. No wonder she hadn't found anything like a bra in with the clothes.

Okay, so it wasn't much, but it was one thing that she wouldn't have to worry abou-

"What are you doing?"  
"Gah!" Kagome's head snapped over her shoulder to where Inuyasha was watching her quizzically. "_SIT!_"

He only smirked.

"Oooh…" she faced the wall, not wanting to let him see her seethe. So much for being preoccupied with Naraku's emblem on the one-dollar bill. "Turn around," she said. "I'm going to change clothes."

"Make me."

"You're acting worse than Miroku!" Kagome fumed, eyes casting back toward the cabinet.

...and caught on a glint.

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"Hang on," Kagome murmured, reaching into the bottom drawer, and pulled out an arc of smooth black metal, not quite cylindrical, and maybe half again the length of her hand. She seemed to have forgotten that she was mad at him as her as she turned it under her gaze as Inuyasha watched. It bend smoothly into two halves, though he couldn't discern anything like a hinge. "What's this?" she asked, holding it up.

Inuyasha snorted. "Stupid girl! How am I supposed to-"

Wait.

Its shape...

"Give it here," he snatched it from her.

"Hey!"

He stifled a chuckle. What was she going to do about it _now_? He pulled the strange object straight again. Something...

Yes. On the right.

"I think it's an arm band," he said, letting its two halves slide open. He pulled back the sleeve on his right arm and let it settle against the skin. With his free hand, he eased it shut. There was a firm, tiny click as it settled, leaving no seam to the eye.

"Does it fit?" asked Kagome.

"Yeah..." he murmured, eyes still on the smooth black gauntlet. It felt like it fit... As a matter of fact, it felt-

From one of the walls came a pounding sound.

Kagome looked up. Inuyasha took a step forward, tentatively laying one palm flat against the smooth surface.

It came again. Inuyasha drew his hand back.

A fist on the wall. It had to be...

Kagome's voice was low as she slid quickly into the clothes she'd found, "What do you think it-"

"Oh for fuck's sake, it's _me_!" came a muffled voice. "Guys, let me in!"

"Who..." Kagome stood up, and then louder. "Who is it?"

"It's Noi! Let me in!"

"Keh!" Inuyasha snarled, "how are we supposed to do that? There aren't even any doors."  
Inuyasha's skin prickled at a soft sound like knives on parchment. He barely registered taking half a step in front of Kagome as two stretches of white wall sank away into an pair of arches, and behind one of them-

"Finally!" the speaker took two quick steps, "She sent me as soon as we realized something was-" he paused, eyes finding the chaos on the floor, the thinly restrained malice in Inuyasha's face,"...wrong," he finished.

"Who the fuck are you?!" Inuyasha demanded. The man's arms seemed to droop from his shoulders, a pair of slate-gray eyes going still beneath rusty bangs.

"Something tells me I'm a bit late."

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You guys R & R, kindly. I'm gonna go study, or at least pretend to.


	3. Predictions

This chapter of "Other Ways," is brought to you by Chaos Baked Goods.  Try the muffins.  Or else.

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                "Late for what?" Inuyasha asked darkly, stepping between Kagome and the newcomer, so that she had to move to the side to see his face.  She wondered if he even knew he'd done it.

                Oddly, he'd also brought his right arm up to chest level, so that the gauntlet gleamed in the uncanny light.

                "Oh, put that thing down," the rusty-haired man told him.

                "No."

                "Do you even remember how it works?" his eyebrows went up helplessly. "Tell me you do, Se.  _Please tell me you remember how to use one of those."_

                Inuyasha gave what probably would have been a growl, "I bet I can figure it out fast enough for you," he said.

                The strange young man took a step back, raising one hand to his chin as if to think.  Kagome frowned.  That face was new to her, she was sure, but something about the gesture struck a chord.

                "We know you, don't we?" she asked simply.

                Inuyasha flashed her his fangs over his shoulder, "Shut up!  I'm handling this."

                "You should listen to her," he offered. "You never go wrong when you listen to her, Se."

                "What the fuck is a 'shay'?" Inuyasha snarled.

                The stranger clapped a hand over his forehead. "Hoo boy..." he looked up. "That's you.  Your name.  It's who you are," he glanced around the shaken room again and swallowed sickly. "Or at least it's who you were this morning."

                "Do you know what happened?" Kagome felt her heart thud.

                "We can't trust him!" Inuyasha snapped.

                "We could at least talk to him.  It sounds like he knows what's going on."

                "He could have been planted here by Naraku!"

                Kagome thought she saw the man's face darken at the name, but he shook it off too quickly for her to be sure.

                "Look," he told them. "My name is Noi.  We spoke this morning.  Indis – that's one of our friends – told me she felt a great evil or some other tripe, and sent me to find you." He looked from Inuyasha's face to Kagome's and back, "Do you want me to prove that you've met me before?" he offered. "Okay.  I know that you," he pointed at Kagome, "have a tiny little scar right here," he pointed at himself, just below his heart. "And I know that—"

                It was nearly too fast to see.  There was a rush of motion that swirled the papers tacked against the walls, and then Inuyasha was holding the strange boy up against the doorframe by his neck.

                "And I knew," he choked, raising one pointer finger, "I knew you were going to do that!"  
                "Put him down," Kagome wrapped both hands around Inuyasha's arm and tugged.

                "No way!" he pushed harder against Noi's throat. "Check."

                Kagome blinked. "What?"  
                "Check, stupid!  See if you really have a mark!"

                "Don't call me stupid!  And I'm not taking my clothes off with the both of you in here."

                "You were the one who wanted to talk to him."

                Kagome stamped her foot, "Because he might know how to help us!"

                "I still think Naraku sent him."

                "Maybe, but don't you think we should—"

                "...guys..." the boy's eyes were rolled halfway back into his head.  Kagome jabbed her heel down hard on Inuyasha's instep, yelping as she realized that she was barefoot, and he was wearing some kind of hard boots.  It was enough, though, to startle him into dropping Noi.

                "Oooh," she half-fell on the bed, tucking her foot onto her lap.

                "Thanks..." the stranger managed.

                "Don't move," Inuyasha ordered.

                "So much for settling this non-violently," Noi choked. "I suppose it's true what they say about 'the meek shall inherit the dust.'" He struggled to his feet.

                "I said don't move!"

                "Inuyasha, he's only trying to help!" Kagome scolded.

                "Quit telling me what to do," there was that unholy gleam in his eye again. "...bitch."

                Noi looked up, "What did you say?"

                Kagome shook her head. "He's just being immature.  Don't pay him any atten—"

                "No," he shook his red-orange head, turning his eyes back to Kagome, "Did you just call him..."

                "...Inuyasha?" she repeated.

                His face paled.

                "Oh _shit_."


	4. Instincts

Chaos Baked Goods.

Pure evil.  With sprinkles.

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                "We have to go see Indis." Noi insisted, heading back towards the door, clapping one hand over his eyes, "Of all the things for her to be right about!"

                What was the big fucking deal?  His name was Inuyasha, not "Shay," and-don't-you-forget-it-have-a-nice-day-asshole.

                "We're not going anywhere," he growled. "For all we know you could be a—"

                "These are shoes, right?"

                He turned to see Kagome smiling brightly, holding up a pair of dark brown, roughly boot-shaped ...things.

                Noi stared at her for a moment, "Yeah," he said at last. "You might want to grab your coat too."

                "Is this it over here?"

                "Kagome?" Inuyasha asked.  How was he supposed to cow the runty intruder into submission if she kept asking him for fashion advice?

                "Inuyasha," she said with a sigh, "maybe Noi is an enemy and maybe he's not, but do you really think that someone who can help us is going to show up wearing a sign?"

                "Well I—"

                "She's got a point."

                "Shut up, you!"

                "Inuyasha, you should be more polite."

                The red-haired man cringed. "Would you do me a _big favor and stop calling him that?"_

                "No," the two of them answered at once.

                "It's my name, asshole," he growled in addition. "Now where the fuck are we going?"

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                He blinked in the pale sunlight.  From the outside, Kagome's tiny 'house' looked like so many hulking scraps of twisted metal.  Inuyasha shaded his eyes with one smooth hand.  He could see between twelve and twenty of the hillocks, reaching many times a man's height, laid out like patternless burial mounds or a dead giant's scattered armor.  The ex-dog demon craned his neck at chunks of steel, plastic, gravel and glass.  Some of the pieces had more shreds of the tick-language scrawled on their hulls.  He could almost make out a—

                "So I just say 'doors,' and they open?"

                "Well—"

                Noi's answer was cut off as the metal—the plastic—the what_ever the fuck that stuff was parted behind them for the third time.  Kagome clapped her hands._

                "Don't do that too much," the freckled boy held out both arms, as if to shield the shrunken archway from view as it closed. "We don't want to attract any extra attention." Inuyasha half-winced in agreement.  That tearing-bending noise wasn't loud, but it would carry.

                "Attention?  From who?" Kagome cast her head back toward the sky, "There's no one here."

                Noi gave her a look that was halfway between fear and pity, as if she'd just tied a bow around a dead puppy's neck.  Inuyasha felt the skin along his spine go cold.

                _So we have enemies._

                Inuyasha looked around.  His hearing was still pretty good, and there wasn't anything except the breeze and an odd rodent or bird.  Kagome's "doorway," had opened up near the edge of one of the humble mountains of broken metal demons, entrance well-hidden from any casual view, and from the angle...

                _We were ...underground? Inuyasha let the thought settle, and his eyes run free around the mechanical graveyard.  The paths between the scrap mounds twisted and broke, some ending in spiky tightness that looked just a little too nasty to be accidental. _This den could be defensible,_ he mused. ..._to someone who knows all the ways in and out.__

                Noi had chosen not to answer Kagome's question, tugging her toward one pathway by her coatsleeve.  Inuyasha shot him a growl – or tried to; the sound was disappointingly wussy – and he let go.  The smaller man coughed and pointed the way instead.

                Inuyasha fell into step behind Kagome, trying to keep one eye on Noi and the other on their surroundings.  The rust-edged burial mounds were giving way to scrubs and runty trees, as if something in the ground were regaining its life.  He paused and tasted the air.

                "There was a battle near here," he breathed again, "a lot of them."

                "Monster, man and metal," Noi answered without turning around.

                Kagome was smiling, "Your nose?"

                He nodded. "Shay" might have no claws, wuss-for-fangs and god-awful taste in clothes, but at least he could get a scent. "Kagome," he placed one blunted hand on her wrist, "come here a second."

                "Huh?"

                He tugged her close, stuck his nose against her neck and sniffed.

                "Inuyasha!"

                "Well I have to get in closer than normal!"

                _Kagome...  Yes!  That was it; that was..._

                He let his eyes sink shut.

                Almost.  The way Kagome's scent had almost been Kikyo's.

                She didn't smell _bad_; she just didn't smell how she was supposed to.  It only took a moment to know the difference; it was slight but real.  Her shampoo was gone, and there was some new thread, some organic change that he couldn't place, but other than that...  He shook his head and sniffed again.  Almost...  If he closed his eyes and pushed the difference away from his mind, he could believe that this was Kagome's neck, her hair, her skin—

                —Her hands slapping at his shoulders. 

                "Inu_yasha!  Ask me before you do that!"_

                "What are you gonna do?" he smirked. "Sit me?"

                "Oooooh!"

                That was it!  That was better!  This girl's eyes might not be exactly the right shade; her hair might not puff out the way it was supposed to, but no one could throw a tantrum like Kagome!

                That pathetic lost ooky-stomach feeling was evaporating with every atom of blood that rushed to throb in that vein on her forehead.

                _Wha—what am I thinking?  I WANT the bitch to mess with me?  I don't need her to—_

                She stamped her foot!

                "Guys!" Noi interrupted. "Se, you can make Ema blush on your own time."

                "Ema?" he folded his arms.

                "And I'm not blushing!" Kagome clapped her hands on her cheeks.

                Noi rubbed his forehead with one hand. "Not even your own names..."

                "My _name_ is Inuyasha, for the last time!"

                "No it's not!" a touch of red crept in between the freckles as Noi's pale eyes flashed. "You're not Inuyasha; you're Se.  Maybe it would be nice for you to be this Inuyasha, but you're not.  You're my friend and I need you back to normal!"

                "Well that's nice, 'cause all I've got on _you_ is a name."

                "Inuyasha!" Kagome grabbed his wrist and tugged hard. "Don't hurt his feelings; he's the only person who can tell us what's going on!"

                "Only if you believe his little story."

                "He isn't lying, Inuyasha."

                "And how would you know?" he demanded.

                "I—" she closed her mouth. "I just _do_."

                _Aw... he knew the steel in those unfamiliar eyes. _Fuck.__

                It was one of those things again.  He looked up at Noi, whose jaw gave a hint of a rippled before he turned back to picking their path.  Kagome's instincts were telling her what to do, and if there was one thing he'd learned to trust...

                "Come on," he took hold of her wrist and began to follow.


	5. What was Missing

This chapter is brought to you by Chaos Baked Goods.

Yummy fudgie brownies!   ....of dooooooom!  Makes a great lunchtime snack.

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                "My feet hurt."

                "Quit complaining.  You're giving me a headache."

                "Well they do!" Kagome pouted. "I think it's the boots," she sighed. "I wish I had a pair of sneakers."

                Inuyasha gave a snort. "You mean like Shippo and Miroku?"

                Several steps ahead, Noi cast a look over his shoulder at the two of them, then turned away.

                "No!  Sneakers are shoes!  They're great for walking long distances."

                "If there so great, then why do you wear those little slippy ones all the time?"

                Kagome tossed her head, a familiar blush rising on unfamiliar cheeks, "I had to wear those!  I needed low shoes so that I could wear those good thick socks.  They protected my ankles from thorns, dust, bug bites..." she ticked them off on her fingers.

                "They made you look like a fat spider on two legs!"

                "Ooooooh!"

                "Go on!" Inuyasha goaded with real glee. "Say it.  I dare you.  I want you to."

                "You make me so mad!"

                "And you can't do a thing about it."

                "_Will you two stop that?"_

                Inuyasha smirked over at their little tour guide of this wasted nowhere.  The fight with Kagome had cleared his head, and he was itching to find out what the hell was going on and what mister A-Noi-ing had to say about it.

                He'd led them away from the downed battlefield, skirting the edge of what looked like some kind of pine forest.  Inuyasha grit his blunted teeth as a shred of uneasiness began to return.  He didn't recognize these plants, and what few birds poked their beaks out of hiding long enough to be heard were piping something completely alien.  What the hell kind of place was this?

                An why, Inuyasha wondered with a chill, had it taken him so long to notice?  He flexed his right hand.  These ears had heard these sounds before.  To this body, the world was nothing new.  How many other things would crop up?  What if something showed up that was dangerous or important?  What if he didn't know it until it was too late?

                He didn't know if Kagome had noticed but...   They'd been walking for perhaps an hour, and Inuyasha had doubts about how far they were from the hidden house in the scrap piles.  There were a few paths leading away from that place, but Noi had turned on a dime and cut cross-country.  The rusty-haired kid kept twisting and doubling back...

                _He doesn't want us to be able to find our way back there... Inuyasha thought darkly.  Then something cold settled in his stomach. __Or he thinks we're going to be tracked._

                "I took the short way here," Noi explained, as if sensing the question. "I was moving on my own, and Indis said it was important, so I chanced it." He looked Inuyasha warily in the eye, as if expecting some answer.  His throat flexed as he swallowed. "They don't know where she lives this time, and we all want it to stay that way."

                "This time?" Kagome asked carefully.  
                "Long story," Noi conceded. "This isn't the time or the—urk!"

                Inuyasha flexed his fingers against the boy's throat, as his feet dangled just off the ground.  A fraction of his former strength was more than enough for this little sniveler. He gave a tight smile and let go.

                "Here.  Now.  Talk."

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                "Inuyasha!" Kagome scolded as Noi landed awkwardly on his rump.  She couldn't see Inuyasha's face but the quivering reflected in Noi's expression was more than enough.  She fought the urge to roll her eyes.

                Sure.  They needed to know where they were and why, bud did he have to switch into "Me badass!  You Jane!" mode?

                "Talk!" Inuyasha barked again.

                "Well," Noi began over a pained wince, "Did I ever tell you about the time I met this girl named—"

                "This isn't necessary!" Kagome stamped her foot.  Noi seemed more and more familiar with every breath that left his body.  Kagome didn't like the idea of relying on the half-memories left behind in some other girl's head, but it was like a hundred tiny clue screaming at her that she knew this boy, and that he wasn't an enemy.

                "What?" Inuyasha flung the words at her over his shoulder, "do you think he'd tell us if I just asked nicely?" he sneered.

                "Well now that you mention it—" Noi began.

                "Shut up!" snapped Inuyasha.

                "Make up your mind!"

                "Why is Kagome's house a secret?" Inuyasha demanded. "Who is Se, who is Indis and _who – the – fuck – are – you?_"

                _Oooooooh!  I hate it when you ignore me..._

                There was a hissing sound between her teeth.  She bit it back.  It didn't work anymore anyway.

                "Tell me before I bash your nose in!"

                _Oooooooh, Inuyasha if I could I'd sit you so hard that you'd climb out and find the feudal age on the other side!_

                "I know," Noi was gasping, "that you know who Naraku is." Inuyasha's fist flexed, but he didn't say anything.  A darkness grew in Kagome's mind. "Most of us just know him as the Tai-Oni." Noi swallowed and went on, "A while ago he tried to have Ema kidnapped."

                "Who?" asked Inuyasha.__

                "Ema," Noi pointed at Kagome, "You know, her _name?_"

                Inuyasha growled and grabbed the rusty-haired boy by the collar. "Her _name is Kagome!  Ka.  Go.  Me.  And she—"_

                Kagome giggled freely as Inuyasha slapped a hand over one eye.

                "Why did he try to have me kidnapped, Noi?" she asked gently.

                "You have powers," he said quickly, cringing away from Inuyasha's hand. "We think he wanted you to do something for him – look, Indis is really the person to talk to about this, and we need to keep moving, _really—"_

                Kagome's spine began to creep. "Inuyasha..." she breathed.  That feeling...

                "And how do we know that this Indis even exists?" Inuyasha sneered. "For all we know, you made her up so you could lead us out here!"

                "Inuyasha," Kagome heard her voice grow more insistent.

                "Alright, believe me or don't, but the truth is that we shouldn't stand still to long out here in the wild."

                "Why not?"

                "Inuyasha!" Kagome snagged a lock of his short hair and tugged.

                "What?" he snapped.

                Noi took one look at her face and said something that was probably a curse.  He shook his head, "Dark things come for those who wait..."

                "I feel a youki," she said quietly. "We're not alone."

                The round face that wasn't quite her arrogant dog-demon's flickered from apprehension to arrogance.  One set of barely-clawed fingers moved to the right side of his waist.

                And then he went strangely rigid.

                Kagome knew.  She knew it as surely as if she held his thoughts in her hands.

                No demon strength.  No fangs.  No claws.

                And no Tetsusaiga.


	6. Found

Chaos Baked Goods. The flavor is fleeting. The evil lasts all year long.

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He had a sudden flashing memory of his brother. In all that cracked gold agate, he'd seen a spark of bitter loss as he'd torn the spent dragon limb from the stump of his left arm. Some of the mystery dropped out of that sight. Missing his prized demon blade was like missing a limb. Inuyasha swallowed the dryness in his unfamiliar throat. This body had no claws, no fangs, only a shred of his former strength, and not even a blunt blade to crack against an unfriendly skull. What was he supposed to use against— What the hell was coming, anyway?

His ears twitched. ...or rather, they _should_ have twitched. Damn, this was infuriating! From beyond the trees, Inuyasha detected a solid, rattling buzz.

"What the hell is that sou—urk!" Inuyasha choked as something grabbed the back collar of his shirt.

"Quit making noise and help me!" Noi breathed in a half-hiss. Inuyasha blinked his too-human eyes as the boy scrambled one way and then the other like a panicked squirrel.

"What are you looking for?" Kagome asked helplessly.

Noi looked up at her, opening his mouth, but then he just shook his head. "We need a—" he said quickly. "Se," he said to Inuyasha. "Scout us some cover."

"Huh?"

"Scout us some cover. There's a gully around here that— Never mind," he said, waving for them to follow him. "God damn it," he muttered under his breath as cast his gaze left and right. "He should have just turned you both into babies. At least then you'd be easier to hide."

Inuyasha rubbed his neck. Damn! What did this Se genius make his clothes out of, anyway? The buzzing sound was louder now, overlaced with a high-pitched wrenching noise that was far too steady to be a scream. Inuyasha winced, trying like hell to make his ears flatten back.

"Aha! Down here!" Noi pointed, sliding down the rise toward a tight gulley. "Come on!"

Inuyasha narrowed his eyes. An entire childhood of running scared flooded back to mind. That little passage between the boulders looked like a halfway-decent hiding place, but it could just as easily be a den for something worse. He folded his arms. "How do I know this all isn't some trick to get us to—"

"Like this?" Kagome asked, bracing her feet and hopping down beside Noi.

"Kagome!" he protested.

"Shut up and get down here!" hissed Noi, pale eyes turning to the sky. "Even this isn't going to fool heat detectors, but if we're lucky, they're not after us and we can just—"

There was a crashing sound and the snapping of wood as an angular mass of gray steel plunged the six spikes of its legs into the loam, the core of its body bobbing with the impact. As the bladed metal wings slowed and retracted – taking with them half the evil noise – two thick, whiplike coils unfurled, one from each end, tipped with a red and searching eye.

"So much for that," Noi whispered.

Inuyasha's unfamiliar eyes went wide. The thing reeked of the forge and fumes of Kagome's world, but with the wretched hint of old blood. There was something else as well, something in the serpentine curving of its two necks as they switched searchingly from side to side. This was no tame metal dragon that carried children to school.

One scarlet lamp settled at Inuyasha's chest level. The other, curling backwards over the steel frame, soon followed suit.

Something wrenched inside him as he met that laser-red gaze. Those were not the empty eyes of a machine. This was a predator, organic and hungry. He'd seen those eyes in Hiten, Kagura, and a thousand other nameless beasts:

The eyes of a youkai.

"Finally." Inuyasha smiled. "Something familiar."

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"Idiot!" Noi seethed. "What's he doing?"

Kagome shook her head in oncoming panic, a dozen moonless, foolhardy nights rising like ghosts in her mind. "He's not used to fighting without his powers!"

Noi blinked. "Se's lost his powers?" he asked.

Kagome blinked back, "You mean he does have powers?"

"Of course!" he waved his hands. "They don't send flocks of demon-birds after random ordinary people!" he looked away for a moment, "Well okay sometimes they do, but they're after Se because he has powers!"

"What is that thing?" Kagome barely breathed.

"A search demon," Noi answered in kind, not taking his eyes off the scene on the rise. She saw his throat flex as he swallowed, looking upward past the broken treetops. "'Stay and ye shall be found.' There must be at least three—"

"Five," corrected Kagome.

"—five more of them." He shook his rusted head. Noi's hand slid downward past his waist, an inch from her hip, and she felt her hand give a twitch. "If Se runs, they'll just follow him. Or slaughter us and then follow him. It depends on their orders."

Kagome's eyes drifted to Inuyasha's unfamiliar silhouette. She'd seen him circle an opponent hundreds of times, but he was more unarmed that he'd ever been, and she felt it keenly. "Can you help him?" she breathed.

The freckled man opened and closed his mouth a few times, shaking his head. "I guess..." he trailed. "I guess there's no point to hiding, now that we know who they're after." Noi shook his head. "I guess conscience makes corpses of us all..." he said, clicking what looked like an ammunition clip into his—

Kagome blinked at the strange gun. "Where'd you pull that from?"

Noi heaved a disgusted sigh. "Don't ask. Stay here."

He completely missed the disgruntled gleam in her eye as he turned to climb out of the crevice.

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Inuyasha's heart was pounding in his chest. The beast was matching him step-for-step, but hadn't yet made any other threatening moves. His eyes fell to its plunging legs as the creature pulled them, one by one, from where they'd sunk ankle-deep in the gravelly loam. With a series of oddly organic clicks, each single spike sprouted glossy claws too real to be metal.

His gaze fell to the black gauntlet on his wrist. What was its little secret? He'd held it on Noi like an arrow quivering on the bowstring, and the boy hadn't missed a beat, pulling back and locking his eyes on it, exactly as if it could pierce his shaking heart. It was a weapon; he knew that in the bones of his wrists, but a weapon of what kind? He poured his gaze into the innocent onyx gleam.

_"Please tell me you remember how to use one of those!"_

A frightened friend or a frightened enemy? Inuyasha couldn't tell.

He lifted his arm, and the onyx gauntlet gave a twitch in perfect time to his heartbeat. He flexed his wrist and something sizzled in the air.

Damn but it was going to be fun figuring this one out.


	7. Unchanged

Chaos Baked Goods is proud to support the Bishounen Guild in its efforts to unionize. May the Brownies of Destruction keep you hyper and enthused as you seek better health benefits, a fair system of conflict resolution and makeup reimbursement.

Oh, and I don't own Inuyasha, Kagome, Naraku or any of Takahashi Rumiko's miraculous creations. Noi and his world are kinda' mine, though.

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The creature moved without warning, both eye-whips coiling backwards, twisting around each other into a thick metal neck as its closest forelimb slashed forward faster than anything that heavy had a right to. Inuyasha leapt backwards as the limb narrowed and stretched, one lacquer claw just barely nicking his throat.

His smirk grew despite the pain on his skin. He could still move like he used to, even if there wasn't power behind it. In fact...

Inuyasha's thoughts smoothed out, smooth as the slashing, slicing, sliding thing in front of him. The scent – what little he could catch of it – was as alien as the metal beasts of Kagome's world, but the movement was youkai, plain and evil.

And two could play at that game.

Inuyasha paused as another wheeling limb made for his chest. He pulled his feet up from the earth and landed on top of it. The creature reacted immediately, rearing back onto four legs so that it could use another to sweep him off. He dodged smoothly, too smoothly, jumping and landing on its back.

The lightness of his spirit ceased as his eyes scanned the mirror-smooth steel. There were only the barest of seams where the wings had slid away. No vulnerable spots anywhere.

i_Now what?_/i

"Se!" called the Noi guy. Inuyasha looked down to see him on the moss, holding some chunk of metal in one hand.

"I'm kinda' busy right now," he snarled back. "Unless you're about to tell me how to kill this thing—"

"Use the gauntlet!"

"Oh!" Inuyasha turned his eyes back to the onyx bar sheathing his forearm. The weapon pulsed as if in response. And it was a weapon; he knew that now, in all the bones of his wrists. "How the fuck do I do that?"

"Duck!"

"Duck? How does that help me—"

The creature swung its twisted neck like a morning star, knocking Inuyasha off its back and toward the rocks. (And the landing hurt way more than Inuyasha was used to, another reason this Se kid was a wussly loser who sucked.) There was another hideous grating noise and it advanced on him like a ravenous spider, heavy claws piercing through the layer of moss.

Inuyasha gambled a heartbeat to look at the gauntlet, boring into it with Se's alien eyes. Strangely, Inuyasha found that he could feel the adrenaline like liquid threads in his veins, through his chest, through his legs, through his brain, through his arms.

And the solid brace ...rippled.

He tried to blink away the heat wave, but it only happened again. He raised his right arm and flipped onto his feet, flinging his gaze back toward the—

Inuyasha leapt backwards toward the rocks as the creature swung at him again, landing shakily on the uneven surface. It recovered quickly, spinning with the inertia of the wasted blow and shot out at him again with its next leg. He dodged again, frowning.

"What..?"

A third strike came at him. He dodged a third time. Inuyasha frowned. This was... this was _easy_. It shouldn't have been this easy to move, not after being knocked flat onto a rock pile, not ever. Perhaps...

Inuyasha took a breath and bolted between the creature's slashing legs, ducking his head beneath its belly and coming out clean on the other side. He flipped his head up, watching the searching eyes swing twice over the place he had been.

i_No way..._/i

It should have tracked his movements. He couldn't have been moving that fast. Nobody moved that fast. Nobody except—

"Se," Noi called again, "if you can get me a clear shot, I think I might stun it!"

"Won't be necessary," he breathed back, feeling a grin grow on his face. "I want to try something."

The double-twisted neck turned his way and the machine retreated, rearing for another attack. Inuyasha followed. Followed, leaped, landed with one foot between its eyes, the other on nothing and perfectly still. He held his position there, almost hovering as the metal wraith haltingly swung its head from side to side, like a mantis that had lost its prey.

He felt the gauntlet ripple and writhe on his wrist and dismissed the feeling. Whatever it was, there wasn't time to figure it out. He wanted this thing dead – or at least in a satisfactory number of pieces – and he wanted it done now.

Inuyasha flexed his ankle and slipped from the head to the twisting neck, dropping down to hang from one arm. "Here I am, Ugly," he murmured as the creature began to thrash again. He picked up his legs to avoid another swipe, swung over and around to avoid the next, and then—

There was a sickening screech as metal claws bit metal skin, and both the creatures' heads hit the loam, still half-twisted around each other.

The demon light flickered and died, and Inuyasha was alone again.

The creature's legs still flung about, blindly but with as much purpose as ever. "Shit!" the word ripped the smirk from Inuyasha's face as it escaped into the air. These were no mechanical death throes – it still knew he was there. Even so, he dodged. Damn, it was easier than avoiding Kouga's slow-ass moves (a whole lot easier, but Inuyasha would never admit that). He quickly slipped back several yards, watching, watching until unaimed blow struck the creature's midsection.

The sparks he'd been expecting, the hiss of burned circuitry and the evil screech as beast's brains died. Blood wouldn't have surprised him either. As it was, the reek, the loathsome, decaying reek hit the back of his throat, the back of his mind, the back of the scars on his heart and drew up bile.

A dark ichor seeped from the creature's death wound. Inuyasha felt one of his knees hit the ground.

The muscles in his legs didn't slide the way they were supposed to. This stranger's clothes fit him but shouldn't. He knew these forest sounds but didn't. The amber in his reflection had shifted shade. Kagome's scent wasn't pure. Almost everything in this world was twisted just a bit from where it ought to be.

And Naraku hadn't changed an inch.

"Don't touch it," Noi said softly, nervousness thrumming in his throat. "We don't know what that stuff is, but everyone who's touched it—"

"It's miasma," growled Inuyasha. "It's Naraku's fucking essence!" He pointed with one non-existent claw. "He dumped some of himself into that thing, only..." Inuyasha gulped. It had reminded him of Kagura. The damn thing had reminded him of Kagura, and now he knew why. "...only not enough," he finished.

"Inuyasha!" A strange voice, for a familiar presence. Kagome was at his elbow. "You're hurt."

"No I'm—" he winced. "Yeah, I guess." Inuyasha squeezed his eyes shut and let one hand touch the small of his back. "This 'Se' loser can jump like a fucking bullfrog but he bruises too damn easy."

"We need to get out of here," she said intently.

"She's right," agreed Noi.

Inuyasha scoffed. "Relax," he said. "That thing's dead, ain't it?"

"Yes," Noi nodded hesitantly, "but it's—"

"So don't worry about it. Now tell me about this place we're going."

"Inuyasha," Kagome said again. "We really should—"

"Cut your whining, wench," he interrupted smugly. "Now that I know what this Se jerk is good for, I could've killed that thing with one arm tied behind my back."

"Boast not of your kills, lest ye be boasted of," the boy snapped back, freckled throat flexing with each nervous breath.

Inuyasha frowned. "What's that got to do with—?"

And then four more of them plunged through the branches.

"Oh," he muttered.

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(Holds lighter for Green Tea.)


	8. Scramble

I've just a sketchy-style chapter this time.

I don't own Inuyasha, Kagome, Naraku or any of Takahashi Rumiko's miraculous creations. Noi and his world are kinda' mine, though.

REQUEST FROM THE FANAUTHOR:

A few years ago, I found a hilarious document called "Anime Cool Guy Test." It was hysterical. _He can cook +4 points. He's feared by gods -20 points. But not because he's ridiculously over-powered, regain 25 points..._ The other day, I tried to find it again. Google, altavista, it was of no avail.

I long ago saved a copy of "115 Rules for Evil Overlords." If anyone has similarly saved a copy of the Cool Guy Test, then I would greatly appreciate an email.

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Kagome's grip went tight on Inuyasha's arm. The four machines were moving toward them like lionesses bearing down on a kill, and there was no mistaking that evil ringing in her heart. Naraku had crafted shells of steel for his new children. "What do we do now?" she breathed.

Noi looked back at her. "In this case, tradition dictates that we run."

"Come on..." sneered Inuyasha, shifting one foot so that he was just a little closer to them than she was. "I can beat these things."

"No you can't," Noi answered smoothly. "They attack in groups. That one must have been malfunctioning, or it never would have landed without waiting for the others." He paused. "Or it might have had special orders."

"You're just jealous."

"That you look so damn good in leather pants? Of course I am, but that's not the point. You don't remember how to fight, not well enough to take out four of these at once."

The eyes of the nearest steel-beast flared, and Kagome _knew_. They were moving too slow. They were coiling like a serpent before the bite. When it came, it would come quick. "Inuyasha..." her voice was barely audible.

He looked at her and something flickered in those too-pale amber eyes, an unaccustomed look to match the face.

"When we move," Noi was saying, "they'll move."

"They're movin' now, genius," Inuyasha murmured as he watched the approaching search demons and Kagome felt goosebumps on the skin beneath her fingers. He looked back to Kagome, mouth half-open, "I don't think..." he trailed off, then set his jaw, turning sharply toward Noi. "Fine," he said swiftly. "Lead the way."

"There's a tunnel," the red-haired boy whispered, barely moving his lips. "If we're lucky, we can make it."

"Spare us the guided tour, moron; just go!"

"On three..."

Kagome loosened her hand on Inuyasha's arm. She didn't want to let go completely.

"All right," Noi breathed.

The second search demon lowered one gleaming head. All eight eyes were fixed on them. She felt Inuyasha tug his arm away.

"One..."

His hand slipped down to her wrist.

"Two..."

His hand caught hers and squeezed. She squeezed back.

"Three!"

The tiny grove exploded in the evil hiss of metal. Instead of turning straight backwards into the woods, Noi ducked sideways behind the rocks. Caught off-guard, Kagome took half a step in the wrong direction before Inuyasha gave her arm a jerk and half-led, half-dragged her after them.

One slender blade hit her hair. Behind her, Kagome all but saw a half-dozen black strands float toward the ripped moss.

"This way!" shouted Noi. "It turns into a rock scramble!" Kagome turned to follow, loamy cloth of her dress snagging as she went. "I could've been a dental hygienist…" Noi was muttering, "but noooooo, Mama's little boy had to grow up and join the underground and get snapped at by fucking demon birds."

Kagome hissed in a breath. "What's a rock scramble?"

Growing up, Kagome hadn't been a big fan of hiking, but her time in the past had caused her to develop a taste for the mountains. Thinking back, she hadn't had much choice about it, but over time her legs had stopped aching and her lungs had stopped burning and her heart hadn't pounded so hopelessly against her ribs. If Kagome had doubted that Ema's body wasn't her own, she knew it then. Even when there were no roads, they'd picked their paths. Kagome was still fairly hopeless, and Inuyasha had never needed the skill, but Miroku had been an absolute natural.

This was no picked path of any kind.

"Oho," Noi's voice filtered back at her, "or Se just could've fucking remembered how to use his own fucking weapon of choice that he practically sleeps cuddled up with, but noooooo…"

This was no shortcut through a gorge or across a roadless span between one rumor and the next.

Kagome's knee hit granite and left blood behind. Inuyasha's hand on her upper arm twisted and she felt pain in her shoulder and firmness under both feet.

But these were boulders and halves of boulders, glacier-cracked to splinters. The noise behind her stumbled and slashed. Her eyes flicked to the scattering branches. They couldn't fly. They couldn't walk. The rocks were cursed, and not just for her. She didn't have time to go numb. She didn't have time for pain. Noi was scrambling ahead of them. Kagome spared a second to notice that, for a boy that skinny, he sure seemed to know his way up a mountain trail, covering the ground twice as fast as she would have expected. Inuyasha was no slouch either. Kagome began to suspect that the only reason he'd deigned to let Noi lead was because he didn't know the way himself.

"Hurry up!"

Her knees pumped nearly to her chest. Whatever power Inuyasha had lost, landing in this alien place, it hadn't been in his legs. With every jump he took, from one split stone to the next, his hand at her sluggish arm made him lean down so hard that she was sure he'd lose his balance every time. Kagome kept her eyes on the sky, on the rusty-haired boy leading them, on the uncertain ex-hanyou who'd been her lifeline long before this and never seemed to lose his footing. The noise behind her grew.

"Oy, runt!" Inuyasha yelped at their guide. "How much further?" The world seemed to slow down as he began to flip over his shoulder in her direction, smooth as the Earth on its circuit. "I don't think Kagome can keep this—"

Agate eyes set on something behind her and flared wide. The whole world flared white.

Kagome never felt her body hit the rocks.

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_"Kagome!"_

_"You tried to kill me, didn't you?" Sesshoumaru's eyes glowed like steel. He was cold, but when had he turned metal?_

_"You'll be sorry," she smiled out, handing Inuyasha his birthright. "Here you are, but you have to promise to protect and love me always."_

_"Kagome, get up."_

_A boy with Shippo-red hair. "Please tell me you remember how to use one of those!"_

_Evil poison. It didn't hurt (why didn't it hurt?) but it was bad, very bad, would make her gone. But it felt so good to be still._

_The sword in his grip hummed, crackled, pulsed with an electric heartbeat._

_"Kagome!"_

Something touched her forehead.

Pain in her eyes.

"...think she's..."

Hands at her neck.

"Kagome?"

"...don't push her too..."

Lying on her back.

"Kagome!"

"...telling you, Indis said..."

"Damn it, wake up!"

She pulled in a breath. It wasn't just her eyes; her head hurt. In fact, Kagome realized, just about everything hurt.

"You're underground, Ema," a strange speech and a strange word. "They can't follow us here. We've had a change of plan." Noi. Noi was talking.

"We had a plan in the first place?" snapped Inuyasha.

Kagome reached behind her and felt rock. She tensed her arms and pressed herself toward the close ceiling. Soon, there was a palm against her shoulder blade and a whispered scent of male sweat and unknown cloth. When had he put his arm behind her? For Kagome, every muscle twitch seemed individualized, but he still moved as one piece. He was close. If her head hadn't been throbbing like a smashed artery, she'd have blushed. Come to think of it... Kagome felt her cheeks heat.

"As a matter of fact, we did," finished Noi. "We were going to go straight to Indis, but considering that we ran into a little _complication_, we won't be able to make it there until after curfew. And if you think _that_ was bad," the boy shook his head, "then you don't want to know what happens at night. If we follow the tunnel a ways, then we might be able to make it to my place. Indis said she'd try to meet us there." Noi faked a sigh. "And I've only got good china enough for two..."

Kagome breathed. "What..."

"—happened?" asked Noi, a smile making his pale eyebrows arch. "One of the damn search birds hit you in the head and Se's fucking memory came back, that's what. Indis used to joke that you two were connected at the brain."

Inuyasha rasped out his human half-growl. "Quit calling me 'shay' and I don't remember shit." He never looked at Noi, though. His eyes didn't leave her.

"Of course," Noi added, "that's not how he _usually_ gets that overgrown charm bracelet to work, but it did the trick. I hardly had to help or anything."

"Lying bastard, you didn't help at all. You were hiding!"

"I was moral support." Noi shook his head in amazement. "They also serve who only turn and flee. Besides, you looked way too into what you were doing for me to disturb you. Ema, I'll be fucked if the damn fool didn't try to carry you here."

"You were too heavy..." he whispered into the ground.

Her hand found his fingers.

Noi hadn't seemed to notice that his audience's attention had shifted. "The second you went down, my boy here is up and over the rocks and kicking ass," the red boy all but laughed. "It's been a long time since I've seen you break a sweat over a few search demons."

"It just..." a crease formed between Inuyasha's new eyes and he held up his right arm, the arm that wasn't supporting her and made a fist. Kagome blinked at sparks, running in even trails from Inuyasha's elbow down past his fingers. "It was like nothing could break me," he said in a voice too quiet to be his own, and then, with a familiar smirk forming on his lips, "so I broke them instead." His hand opened and the light vanished, leaving an innocent shell-smooth surface behind.

Kagome's eyes fell to the armband at his wrist. It gleamed like a black pearl.

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	9. Seeing

I don't own Inuyasha or its characters or settings. Long may Rumiko Takahashi's pen be sharp! ...this particular setting, however... Anywho, just a sketchy-style chapter this time.

This post is brought to you by Chaos Baked Goods. If it doesn't make you go blind, you get a refund.

(bows to Ganheim)

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The world was still dim. Kagome wasn't sure if it was the knock on the head or the sun - gray as a witchlight - beading its way toward the treeline. She could remember the vivid blues and purples hovering like ragged jewels on the cracked shelf near where she'd woken, bright green of the moss at her feet, the pulsing red of their eyelike lamps.

Her feet hurt. Noi hadn't let up yet and Inuyasha wouldn't either.

The russet on Noi's hair had faded to freckle-brown. Even Inuyasha's eyes seemed to have leeched pale. He kept twisting his neck to turn them back at her, dull pink mouth opening without a sound.

There was a stitch in her side and she was panting. She knew why he wouldn't lift her.

It was as if she could see his bones and muscles through the snug black cloth-leather that hid Inuyasha's skin neck-to-ankle. His arms and legs swung like a metronome, marred only by the slim wrist clamped between the fingers of his right hand. His posture was more upright. His arms were straighter in proportion with his legs.

He wasn't hooked up the same way. He couldn't carry her. It would have been like a grownup riding horseback on a dog. Even if he'd been strong enough, he couldn't have.

A rainwashed yellow eye looked back at her again. The lid closed and opened. She tried to smile wanly, but he'd already looked away.

It was eating him alive.

The woods were giving way. How long had they been following the road? Pebbles snagged the sides of her boots as her feet slipped sideways in the dust. Inuyasha jerked her arm painfully and she righted.

He stopped, he actually stopped for half a heartbeat. Kagome couldn't even suck in a breath, but it allowed her to get her bearings long enough for a thought to gleam through her mind:

What had this woman allowed to become of her body? For a girl who lived so far from anything resembling civilization, Ema seemed to have no tolerance for traveling on foot. Even Ema's arms felt like overcooked ...hell, anything limp and wiggly and-

They'd started moving again. Noi hadn't so much as turned around. The woods were thinning out into what almost looked like farmland except for the fact that there were no-

Kagome's heart went still. She could almost hear the whirring blades. "There's another one over there," she whispered before she even realized that she knew.

Inuyasha stopped so hard that she staggered full into him. Noi flipped his dust-colored head over one shoulder. "How many?" he asked with no real weight. "Only one?"

Kagome nodded.

"Then it's nothing," he told her. "Just a patrol."

"Yeah, moron," Inuyasha pointed one clawless finger at the boy. "And do you know what patrols do? They look for shit. Shit like us!"

"Then patrol isn't the right word." Noi answered. "I don't have time to explain. That search demon isn't after us. It's just there to be seen."

"Seen by who?"

"Not now!" Noi hissed. Inuyasha didn't move. Noi's glass-gray eyes shut. "Slaves, watch well the house, for you know not when the whip will return. It's just there to be seen," he repeated. "Now come on. It's barely another mile before we reach the walls."

Kagome opened her mouth to ask what he meant, but found she didn't have any breath to spare. Hadn't Ema ever heard of gym class?

Inuyasha seemed to be something like satisfied with Noi's answer and hooked his arm around her elbow to pull her along, but she put her free hand on his wrist. The skin was cool against the smooth sides of her fingers.

"What's wrong with you today, bitch?" he grumbled.

"I think I'm sick..." she whispered back.

"Hell, bitch, not here!" Inuyasha snarled out with only half his usual vehemence. His anger was as washed out as her eyesight, but at least she knew where his Kagome-blindness was coming from. "You can throw up in the bushes. Just lemme make that fluff-brained coward hold still for a-"

"Not that kind of sick!" she said immediately. "I mean-" His palm cupped her forehead. "-I feel funny. My legs shouldn't hurt this much and-" He tipped her head back to look in her eye. "-my lungs are burning. I don't think-" He leaned in, all the way in, to sniff the skin right next to her neck. "-this can be normal-eeee!" Against her will, her neck cricked down, squishing his cheek against her jaw. "That tickles!"

"Ease off. I'm only trying to-"

"What's the holdup now?" Noi asked. Kagome's could clearly see the nerves twitch in his throat. ...really clearly. In fact, she could see every slate-colored hair on his head.

"I'm just tired." She smiled. "I'm all right." She wasn't going blind at any rate.

"No she's not," Inuyasha growled back.

Kagome put her hands on her hips. "How would you know, anyway? I said I'm-"

"Something's fucked up in your scent," he said. "It was only there a little before, but now it's there a lot."

"Inuyasha, that could be anything. I just feel a little too-"

"Did you go color-blind?" Noi demanded.

Kagome stared at him. The freckles still stood out against the pale. "How did you know?"

"Dammit!" Noi swore. "Couldn't have found a better time for a flareup. Can a blow to the head mess with someone's immune system?"

"What the fuck are you talking about?" snarled Inuyasha, brighter against the fading sky.

"Immune system?" Kagome sat up sharply.

"Get her on her feet, Se. We have a way to go yet."

"Not until you explain," Inuyasha planted both feet on the dusty ground, something softer hidden deep in eyes too pale to be gold. "What the fuck do you mean, 'flareup'? Is she sick?"

Noi was giving them both that look again. The dead puppy with a bow look. He opened his mouth and closed it again. "No more than anybody else."

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	10. Cold

I don't own Inuyasha or its characters or settings. Long may Rumiko Takahashi's pen be sharp! ...this particular setting, however... Anywho, another short-and-sketchy chapter this time. This story seems to be on my perpetual back burner.

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She barely moved the rest of the way. Her feet lifted and set back down as this rusty-headed asshole led them around by the nose, but the skin of her arm was cold underneath Inuyasha's fingers, and eyes stayed flat as still water the whole way.

And that was another thing. Inuyasha flexed the fingers of his free hand. Blunt, useless human nails, but... His hands hadn't been this smooth since he'd been a child in his mother's arms. Even when he'd turn human for the night, the layers of hardened skin that had materialized under his healing blisters had stayed right where they were. At first blunt and formless from a life of random slayings and skinnings, and then in stripes after he'd begun training with Tessaiga.

His hands hadn't been the only part of his life to take shape that day.

Inuyasha's eyes fell back to the glossy armband encircling the wrist that half-held Kagome upright. It had done well enough. Using it against those metal demons had felt good, _fucking_ good, but it wasn't the settling of his spirit like another part of his own body on his arm. It wasn't a legacy, proof of his father's favor.

The half-demon swallowed hard. If all of this wasn't a trick, in this body, was he still the son of the Inu no Taisho?

A growl should have built in his throat, but didn't. Fuck Naraku, fuck Noi and fuck the whole world if need be. He was Inuyasha and no one else.

Kagome's foot dragged in the dust on the road and in his thoughts. He shifted his grip and slung her left arm over his shoulder.

_I can't carry you_.

Noi ducked his chin in their direction and just kept walking like nothing was happening, like her being sick was normal.

_I'm sorry._

The thing was, Inuyasha realized as the dirt road gave way to gravel and then pavement and then the walls of a village, it was starting to look like normal was exactly what it was.

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"The plague started in my grandfather's time," said Noi. His voice dimmed. "At least ...this particular one did. In its earliest form it caused... Let's just say we're all very grateful for what we have."

"I didn't ask, dickhead."

Kagome blinked. The world had gone from shades of gray to all gray. It only rippled with the suggestion of depth. She realized that if she'd been feeling better, the ache of her left shoulder over Inuyasha's smooth neck would have been comforting.

"It's treatable, of course." She couldn't even see ash-color in Noi's hair this time. "Half the people alive in the world today walk around with it sleeping in their blood."

"Whatever, fucktard. Just tell me which way next."

The stale half-images in front of her formed slates and cones, like the area illuminated by a streetlamp. It could have been real or it could have been her imagination casting light on an unknown step. They could have been underground still for all she could tell on her own. Her hearing was working fine, however, so when the rustling, she turned her empty eyes to the right, feeling Inuyasha's rib cage shift against her side as he did the same.

"Don't worry about it," Noi explained.

Kagome opened her mouth to ask what it was that shouldn't make her worry, with the swish of cloth and skin. Nothing came out. Her throat didn't hurt and her voice wasn't tired. She'd gone blank.

Inuyasha's throat flexed loudly. "Who is..."

"She's not going to come closer," the boy kept saying. "It's... It isn't what people do."

Whoever wasn't coming closer either couldn't talk either or didn't wish to, swirling in front of Kagome like gravel in a whirlpool. She shouldn't have to... She'd only meant to... Kagome reached out one hand, palm out, toward the soft-cloth sound.

Noi's shoe hit the pavement very quickly, and his hand jerked hers back. How she knew it was his and not Inuyasha's...

"It's winter," Noi said, as if that could explain it or anything. "The cold can make things worse." His sigh was almost reverent in its distance. In her mind's eye, which was still bright, Kagome saw him take two steps in front of her, holding on hand vertically between his eyes and his heart. "To everything its season," he breathed, "and a time to every wickedness under heaven."

The soft-cloth rustle sounded again, thread-on-thread and too threadbare.

"It's treatable if you can get your medicine." Noi said quietly.

The rustling moved on. A moment later, so did they.

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drf24 (at) columbia . edu


	11. News

This chapter is brought to you by Chaos Baked Goods. Ride the Shadow. It's worth the gym membership.

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He didn't like the way her skin had gone clammy. He didn't like that her breathing didn't make as much noise. He didn't like the sickly dust that got kicked up with every step. He didn't like this city. He didn't like the prickling on the back of his neck. He didn't like the narrow stairway and the crumble-walled room beyond. He didn't like the way the shadows stank of damp and he didn't like this phlegm-headed bastard who wasn't giving him his goddamned answers!

"Why is she sick?" Inuyasha hissed.

"Same reason the rest of us are sick," Noi snapped back. "They turned it loose. He had it turned loose." The boy's pale eyes flashed. "No one says it on the street but we all know."

Inuyasha all but hissed as the door slid shut. It was something like a real door this time, made out of wood or something like enough to it. The walls looked the same as the ones from Kagome's house on the far side of the well, except that the paint was flaking away and whatever was underneath didn't look too healthy.

"Know what? Why can't you talk about it?" Inuyasha all but hissed as the doorway skidded shut. "You talk about everything as if we already know."

"You're supposed to already know."

"Does it fucking sound like we know?"

"Quiet."

The word. The effect. It wasn't a high girl's chiding, like she used to keep him from kicking Kouga's ass. This was the breathless crunch of gravel in a throat. Inuyasha got quiet.

Kagome didn't continue, didn't explain. One pale hand lifted up in front of her eyes. The fingers flexed.

"Your vision should be getting better," said Noi. "That's about as long as it usually lasts." His pale throat flexed. "At least with you."

"Okay..." Inuyasha held out one claw-touched hand. "Let's start with what's going on with Kagome."

The dusty-headed boy nodded to where Kagome was sitting on the room's only chair, an unvarnished mass of solid wood. "Her eyes are failing. They'll be back in a couple hours."

"It's not-" Inuyasha lowered his voice. "It's not just her eyes."

Noi shook his head.

"She's not acting-"

"That'll come back too," a sad smile on his freckled face. "It always does." He took a deep breath and sat down on the bed - the uncanny rasp of the covers made Inuyasha's ears want to twitch again. "The plague started about fifty years ago. At first, it worked like any other disease, spreading from city to village as people moved back and forth. Those it did not kill it left..." he swallowed hard.

"Resistant?" the unfamiliar word came on half of Kagome's voice.

"No," said Noi. "And that should've been a clue."

"What clue?" Inuyasha frowned. "What's resistant?"

"When a disease attacks a population," Kagome had to stop for a breath. "It kills the people who are most susceptible."

"It kills the old folks and little kids and the strong ones live," shrugged Inuyasha. "So what?"

Kagome shook her head, gingerly, as if it would break. "Not just strong. Strong for fighting that," breath, "one disease. They're the ones who live to have kids." Breath. "And then," breath, "those kids are strong." Inuyasha didn't answer. "So," Kagome went on, chest moving in and out more than it should have needed to, "each time the disease comes," breath, "it finds fewer people that it can kill." Her fingers tightened and released on the edge of the chair. "Also, the disease becomes less dangerous over time. The ones that kill the fastest-" breath "-die in human graves."

"I think I get it..." Inuyasha didn't really get it. "So it doesn't act like a normal disease. Naraku's a bastard. Nothin' I didn't know this morning."

"That's not all of it," Noi went on. "The people who didn't die ended up like..."

The boy's words blurred out. Kagome was lifting one hand in front of her face, eyes switching back and forth like a cat's tail.

"Seeing better?" Inuyasha asked carefully.

"I think so," Kagome answered, meeting his gaze. It still looked too dim. It still looked too much like-

"Like that woman in the street?" Inuyasha asked.

Noi nodded. And then, for Kagome's benefit, "Yes. Like her." He turned toward one of the shelves and started rummaging through stacks of paper. "All of this started about twenty years back," he explained. "Now you won't find a single human alive who hasn't been exposed." Inuyasha watched the back of his ear twitch up. There was a smile in his voice. "That doesn't mean that there aren't any, of course. So about a year after the plague hit, Naraku sends out riders with supplies of the first anti-phage... It turned out he'd been having it made in labs since day one. Or before that, depending on whom you believe. At first-"

"Wait." Kagome's voice sounded stronger but more confused. "Naraku turned a plague loose and then made a bunch of scientists try to cure it? That doesn't make sense."

"When did he ever make sense?" Inuyasha muttered bitterly. "How many humans did he have working for him while he was pretending to be that nobleman's son? Hell, he even got Sango to toe the line. This is probably just another move to keep his followers in step."

Noi shook his head. "No, Kagome's right. The master doesn't need us to love him. He's always been very clear about that."

"But then why try to cure his own disease?" Kagome asked.

The freckled face smiled wanly, "Not cure," he said sadly, "treat."

Inuyasha growled. "What the hell's the difference?"

"Man cannot live on bread alone," Noi explained. "At least, not anymore."

"Control," whispered Kagome. "Cure someone and they're well forever. But if you only treat it, if you never manage to quite purge the body..."

"People are healthy enough to do his work, but not enough to run free." Noi smiled thinly. "Their own blood cells form their chain."

Inuyasha scoffed. "That's stupid. Why would Naraku need a bunch of humans alive at all? He'd always just killed them before."

"From what I've been able to tell, the master was more brutal in his early days," Noi allowed, looking off to one side, "or at least, more direct."

"All right, so let's say Naraku really is behind this plague thing," Inuyasha answered, folding his arms. "What the hell has it got to do with me or you or Kagome?"

Noi pulled a closed book off the shelf and shoved it into Inuyasha's arms. "Because there is a cure for Naraku," he explained. "And you're it."

Inuyasha felt his mouth tighten, "For the second time," he said, "that's nothing I didn't know this morning.

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	12. On the Side

This chapter is brought to you by Chaos Baked Goods. 'Tis the season for evil brownies.

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"Not everyone has it," Noi explained. "And most of the ones that do take their medicine, so they don't end up like—"

"Like that woman we saw on the street," Inuyasha finished.

There was a beat. Kagome flexed her fingers against what she assumed was Noi's bedspread. By now, she could see the two of them moving in ripples, but the world was still the color of dust.

"How'd they keep it from spreading?" asked Inuyasha.

Noi shrugged. "I don't know. People aren't stupid."

"If there's medicine for this, then why doesn't she take it?" asked Inuyasha.

"It probably has side effects, Inuyasha," Kagome answered. "Even in my time—" She stopped. Suddenly, she could see the coin from the apartment in the hidden ruin.

_Five hundred and thirty-sixth year of the Tai-Oni_.

Even if Naraku had counted his reign from the day they'd disappeared, that put them well into the twenty-first century.

"What?" asked Inuyasha. She could see more clearly now, bright yellow eyes pushing out like lamps against the gray, staring at her with familiar cantankerous weight.

"What does she mean, her time?" asked Noi. "According to the legend—"

"Kagome's time is where she's from," Inuyasha growled an explanation. "It's where she goes when she goes home."

"Inuyasha," she said carefully, "I think we _are_ home."

It hung in the air like a secret.

"Kagome..." she could hear him breathe carefully. "I think just this Noi moron lives here. I mean... There's none of your stuff here or _anything_."

"Inuyasha!

"Actually I do have a set of Ema's clothes in the dresser. She left them one night."

Kagome didn't quite have to see what happened next.

Swish!

Thud.

"_OW!_ I didn't mean it like _that!_" Noi keened. "A prophet gets no respect anywhere, not even in his own house."

"Inuyasha, no hitting the guy who's letting us stay in his house!" Kagome snapped back.

"Hey, it's your underwear he snatched!" Inuyasha shot back.

"I'm sure it's not what you think," Kagome held up both hands in what was probably Inuyasha's direction.

"Yeah, I didn't _snatch_ them," Noi stammered. Kagome blinked back some of the gray in her sight, enough to see Noi shrug his head toward the floor. "She just ...forgot to come back for them, all right?"

"Wha-wha-what?" Kagome stammered.

She heard another of Inuyasha's thin growls and then a choked squeak.

"Lrrrgggghhoo!"

"Inuyasha!" Kagome started.

"Why'd you say those things about Kagome, asshole?" Inuyasha's voice clicked. "Or Evva or whoever!"

"H'knnnnssssssrrr..."

"Inuyasha, maybe if you loosen your grip a bit."

Another thin growl and then a gasp. Kagome blinked again and colors began to take shape.

"So you're worried," Noi graveled out, "that since Ema slept here I must have had untoward designs on her person?" He gasped again. Kagome could just see that he was crouching, out of breath, a hand slapped against each knee. "And that since I am so devilishly irresistible, then that no woman could resist me?"

"I'm _sayin'_ that for you to keep her underwear under your bed i'n' anything like _irresistable_." Inuyasha crossed his arms.

Noi frowned. "Uh-Under my what?" Stiffly, he turned to a block-shaped blur that slid open just the way dressers were supposed to and pulled out a small bundle of neatly folded cloth. "Ema's things are right here. They're not—"

Inuyasha reached down, his bare claws screeching against the strange cloth. Mostly-human fingers worked their way under the mattress and pulled something free. Kagome's eyes had cleared enough for her to see that it was made –barely– of black cloth, with what looked like metal thread glinting near the hem. She felt her cheeks heat. "Maybe you should put those down," she suggested.

"Those, ah..." Noi scratched the back of his neck. "Those aren't mine..."

"Oh no?" Inuyasha cocked his head, well, cockily. "Whose are they, then?"

"If you must know, they're yours."

"Gyah!" Inuyasha shotputted the little black blur into the far wall.

"What?" asked Noi, regaining his confidence. "They're not as comfortable as you always swore?"

"I..." Inuaysha stuttered. Color was seeping back into the world but not enough for Kagome to see the pink that she could hear rising on his cheeks. "I don't wear these!"

"You sure you're not wearing some now?" asked Noi.

"I'm not and I'll prove it!" Inuyasha's hands were at his waist, scrabbling. "How do you open this thing, again?"

"Don't!" Kagome squeaked.

"Come now, Ema," Noi answered with false calm, "some men just won't rest until their names are cleared. Although I have to tell you, Se—"

A shrill sound broke off whatever he'd been about to say next. Kagome felt more than saw Noi's whole body stiffen. The blurred-out pits of his eyes flicked from Inuyasha to herself and back.

"It's coming from the door," whispered Inuyasha, right arm creeping upward as the onyx on his wrist began to gleam.

"Put that away!" Noi hissed. The door shrilled again and suddenly Kagome found a hand at her collarbone shoving her backwards.

"Hey, watch it!" snarled Inuyasha.

"Be quiet!" seethed Noi. There was a sound of a door opening and another shove. The world went dim again, this time from something light and flimsy and not quiet wooden swinging between her eyes and the lamp.

And she wasn't alone. There was barely room for one person in here, crushed against boxes and cloth. Two was positively crushing.

"Mwhr are we?" Inuyasha asked quietly, making a sound like spitting out a sweater.

"I think we're in his closet," answered Kagome.

"Mwhy?"

"I don't know." Noi's dark warnings about curfew stirred a chill beside Kagome's spine. "Maybe—

The shrill noise stopped and she heard the sound of Noi's apartment door squeaking open. There was a light murmuring, with words she couldn't quite make out.

"Yes!" came Noi's answer.

Another series of murmurs, shorter this time.

"No!"

"Uh huh!"

"Okay!"

The door swung shut.

"I'm really not wearing one of those things, you know," Inuyasha said quietly. "I would've seen it when I went to—"

"Inuyasha, I don't need to—" Kagome's stomach tightened and her spine went stiff. "Uh..." she uttered quietly. "Is that your hand?"

"Is what my hand?"

Kagome wiggled as well as she was able. No matter which way she twitched, she couldn't—

"_That_."

"Um..."

It was moved again. "Eeep!" _Definitely_ a hand.

"I think so," Inuyasha answered.

"Well move it!"

"I _can't_. Why do you think it's there in the _first_ pl—"

Noi pulled the closet door open again and Kagome blinked heavily in the new light.

"What was that all about?" demanded Inuyasha.

One rusty eyebrow shot up. "What is _this_ about?"

Kagome plucked up Inuyasha's hand and moved it out of the way.

"Oh that. Yeah that was me," said Inuyasha.

Noi gave half a sigh. "Look, the point I was trying to make earlier before we discovered Se's new aversion to his own fashion sense—"

"They are not mine," growled Inuyasha.

"—the two of you have both spent the night here before." Something quirked near the top of the steadying blur that was Noi's face. "At the same time, I might add."

"Wha-wha-whaaaaat?!" Inuyasha started. By now she could see the light glinting – yellow instead of gray – on the gauntlet on his wrist.

"Inuyasha..." Kagome blinked again. "I think he means we were asleep."

The clouds passed and Noi's eyes cleared the blur. "Of course. What else would I mean?" He gave something like a laugh. "But it certainly makes me wonder what's on _your_ mind."

"Lay off," Inuyasha snarled back. Kagome smiled, making out the scowl on his face. "And you never answered my question, anyway. If there's medicine for Kagome, how come she doesn't get any?"

"Inuyasha?" Kagome asked, a dark thought rising in her heart. "We passed people in the street on the way here, right?"

His eyes focused on her, the first unblurred points since that afternoon, two points of cracked gold glass in the pale cloud of his face. "Yeah," he answered. "They didn't look sick."

Kagome shook her head, "Did they look scared?"

Inuyasha shrugged. "They didn't look anything."

She turned to Noi, "That's the problem, isn't it? The medicine does something else to them, doesn't it?"

Noi's face swirled and cleared, and the world came back into focus.

"I think," Noi said slowly, "that I'd better stop at the beginning.

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drf24 (at) columbia . edu


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